The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said last night that Presidential Office Secretary-General Liao Liou-yi (廖了以) would replace King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) as KMT secretary-general at the end of this month.
Liao will be succeeded by Examination Yuan Vice President Wu Jin-lin (伍錦霖), while KMT legislators Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) will serve as KMT deputy secretaries-general, KMT spokesman Fang Chiang Tai-chi (范姜泰基) said.
In other job changes, KMT Deputy Secretary-General Lin The-jui (林德瑞) will serve as the party’s administration committee head, while Institute for National Development President Kao Huei (高輝) will become head of the KMT’s Mainland Affairs Department.
All appointments will be effective from the end of this month.
The KMT reshuffle is believed be a strategic arrangement ahead of the year-end legislative elections and next year’s presidential election, as King will leave his KMT post and focus his efforts on President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) re-election campaign.
King, 54, played a major role in Ma’s campaigns for Taipei mayor in 1998 and 2001, and the 2008 presidential election. He took over as KMT secretary-general in 2009.
Fang Chiang refused to link the reshuffle to any conflict and said the party had discussed the move as early as last month.
However, earlier in the day the KMT had defended King in the face of rising resentment over his handling of party issues, especially the party nominations for the March 5 legislative by-elections in Greater Tainan and Greater Kaohsiung.
National Youth Commission Minister Wang Yu-ting (王昱婷) accused King and the KMT of making false accusations over her alleged refusal to run for a seat in Greater Tainan.
Wang denied in an interview with the Chinese-language the United Daily News that she had refused to run in the Greater Tainan election and said she was tendering her resignation. Her complaint that KMT officials had accused her of refusing to represent the party in the by-election met with harsh comments from King, who said she had crossed the line by publicly criticizing the party in the media.
He denied ever complaining about Wang declining to run in Greater Tainan, but said Wang was “going too far” by criticizing the KMT in the newspaper interview.
KMT spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) defended King’s efforts to find the best candidates for the March by-elections, adding that the KMT does not target any individual members when drafting election strategies
“As the party’s secretary-general, King is responsible for consulting and negotiating for party unity. He also needs to give instructions during election battles to ensure victory,” Su said.
Su said the party had asked Wang, as well as Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission Minister Kao Su-po (高思博), about their intentions during the Greater Tainan mayoral election in last November, and discussed the possibility of their running in the by-election. He dismissed Wang’s comments that the party had sought her opinion on the issue only once.
This story has been updated since its initial posting.
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